Trolley switch



J. F. WOOLLEY, JR, ET AL 1,962,544

June 12, 1934,.

TROLLEY SWITCH I Filed Oct. 25, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l [n venlors JED F W004 J [for me y June 12, 1934.

J. F. WOOLLEY, JR., El AL TROLLEY SWITCH 2 Sheets Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 25, 1930 Patented June 12, 1934 PATENT OFFICE TROLLEY SWITCH Jed F. Woolley, Jr., and Lawrence J. Long,

Salt Lake City, Utah Application October 25, 1930, Serial No. 491,099

2 Claims.

Our invention relates to a trolley system and has particular reference to an overhead switching system for (A) trolley cars or (B) busses in which one or more overhead conductors are em- 5 ployed.

One object of our invention is to provide a system in which the overhead switches or frogs at a turn-out may be automatically controlled by the operator on a moving vehicle to either the straight-ahead or turn-out position.

Another object is to automatically set the switches to either the straight-ahead or the turn-out position independently of the operator on the vehicle.

closed in the specification as the description of our invention proceeds.

Our invention resides in the new and novel construction, combination, relation of parts and circuit connections described in the specification and shown in the drawings accompanying the specification.

In the drawings:--

Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing of our system showing the mechanism positioned to guide the current collectors of a vehicle, either a trolley car or a trolley bus, moving toward the left, to the branch or turn-out conductor.

Fig. 2 shows more in detail the main or operating switch and mechanism.

Fig. 3 shows the automatic contact device in section for automatically setting the switches to the turn-out position when engaged by a current collector.

Fig. 4 is a partial sectional View showing in detail the spring toggle for maintaining the switch tongue in either of its two positions.

Fig. 5 is a schematic drawing of a modification of our system shown in Fig. 1 and in which separate electrically operated means is used to operate the switches.

In the system shown and herein described we employ switch pans l and 2 which may be similar to that shown in Matthes Patent 1,682,136 dated August 28th, 1928 and comprising a body member 3 with the straight-of-way guides 1 and 5 and the turn-out guide 6. These guides receive the trolley conductors and hold them fixed with respect to the switch pan and also guide the current collector onto and oil. of the pan. At the inner end of the turn-out guide 6 is secured a tongue '7 pivoted to the body 3 by the stud 8 which is fixed to the tongue '7 and passes through the body 3. The body 3 is provided with longitudinal flanges 9 and 9' which Other objects of our invention will be disare spaced and project downwardly. The pans are supported by the trolley wires and in addition thereto by cables passing through the eyes 39 thus permitting the switch to yield vertically.

Fixedly secured to the pivot 8 is a bell crank having arms is and 11. Pivotally secured to the free end of the arm 11, which may be a clevis or. tongue, by means of the pin 12 are two telescopic members 13 and 14 biased to their extended position by means of the spring 15. The exposed end of the member 1 1 is provided with a transverse pasasge to receive a pin 16 to pivotally securev the member 1 1 to the pan member 3.

Referring to Fig. 2 it will be seen that when the axes of the members 11, 13 and 14; are in a straight line between the pivotal centers 8 and 16 that the members 13 and 14 will be in their retracted position and the spring 15 will be under its maximum compression, but when the axis of the member 11 is out of alinement with the axes of the members 13 and 14;, the pivot 12 wil be out of alinement between the pivots 8 and 16 and the spring 15 will exert a pressure upon the parts 13 and l t tending to maintain the pivot 12 off center with respect to the pivots 8 and 16 thus yieldingly holding the members 10 and 11 in either of two positions with respect to the center line passing through the pivots 8 and 16 and likewise holding the tongue 7 in either of two positions as represented by the numerals '7 or '7.

In Fig. 1 we have shown switches 1 and 2 held together by means of rigid spacing bars 1'7 which. may preferably be made of wood secured to the switches 1 and 2 and holding them in rigid, insulated relation. The switch tongue 7 of the pan 2 is provided with an operating lever 18 which is connected to the pivotal end of the lever 11... by means of the insulated connecting rod 19 so that the tongues on the two switches act in unison and alike.

One of the switches as for instance, switch 1 is provided with electrically controlled mechanism for operating the switches and may comprise a coil 20 which when energized will move the plunger 21 to the left and with it the lever 10 which in turn moves the switch tongues to the turn-out position as shown by the tongues 7 in Fig. 1. When the coil 22 is energized the plunger 21 is moved to the right thus moving the switch tongues to the position shown by '7' permitting the current collectors to pass straight through the switches.

In order to further control the operation of the switches we employ a contactor 23 which may conductor 32 to the negative such length to give sufficient time for the energization of the coil 20. I

The contact device 23 is also provided with contact plates 25 and 26 and we prefer to construct the same such that the trolley wire 28 is so positioned that the current collector will not contact with the trolley wire throughout its entire passage across the contact device,.but the contactor will engage with the plates 25 and 26 as shown in Fig. 3. This construction assures one that the collector will positively engage the 30 to the trolley wire. One contact 25 is electrically connected to the trolley wire 28 by means of the conductor 29 and the other contact plate 26 is connected to one end of the coil 20 by means of the conductor 30. The other end of'the coil 20 is connected to the trolley wire 31' by means of the conductor 32.

It will be evident that if the trolley wire 28 is positive as we prefer to make it and the trolley wire 31 and its continuation 31' is negative that when the current collector 33 electrically connects the contact bars 25 and 26 as the vehicle moves from right to left, current will flow from the trolley wire 28 through the conductor 29 and trolley wheel from contact 25 to contact 26 thence through the conductor 30, coil 20 and trolley wire 31' thus energizing the coil 20 and moving the plunger 21 to the left if not already in that position and setting the switch tongue to the position shown by the numeral 7 in both switches. It will be evident that this operation will be automatic and take place irrespective of whether the car operator has his controller set for the off or on position. I

As soon as the controller passes beyond the contactor 23 the circuit to the coil 20 will be broken, but the tongue will remain in its last moved position through the medium of the spring toggle described above. for the current collectors 33 and 33' on the vehicle to take the turn-out trolleys 28 and 31" respectivelyswitches for a turn-out position and consequently the motorman will know that the switch is so set. In order that the motorman may operate the switch to the straight ahead position if he so desires we provide an insulated contact 34 between the insulators 35. Contact 34 may be of wire or bar and made of any length desired and its ends are entirely disconnected from the trolley conductor 23. Leading from the contact 34 is a conductor 36 connected to one end of the coil 22 and the other end of the coil 22 is connected to the trolley 38 by the conductor 37.

, It will be seen that the coil 22 is so arranged that The switch is now set' under control of the vehicle operator. When one of the current collectors on the vehicle engages the contact 34, the vehicle operator may energize or de-energize coil 22 as he may see fit by either throwing his motor controller to the on position or the oif position. The flow of current with the controller on is as follows: from the trolley 28 through the conductor 37, coil 22, conductor 36, contact 34, then through the controller and motors on the vehicle to the negative trolley 31 (B, Fig. 1) or to ground (A, Fig. 1).

When the coil 22 is suificiently energized the plunger 21 will be drawn to the right and this will transmit motion to the tongues on the switches to move them in unison to the position shown as 7. This leaves the switches in a position for conducting or guiding the current collectors 33 and 33 there-across from trolleys 28 and 31 to trolleys 28 and 31' respectively between the tongues '7 and flanges 9. The switch tongues will be held in their 7 positions through the medium of the spring toggle. A vehicle following another vehicle will automatically change the position of the tongues from 7 to 7 when its collector engages the contact 23 and the vehicle operator knowing this has only to bear in mind whether he desires to go straight through the switches or take the turn-out and in the former case he applies power to his motors as the collector 33 passes across contact 34 and to take the turn-out or branch he passes across contact 34 with power off as his collector has previously automatically set the switch tongue to the position 7.

It will be quite apparent that the switch tongues may be pivoted if desired at the inner end of the guide arm 4 and the operating mechanism would be re-arranged and the arm 10 connected to the other end of plunger 21 to give to the switch tongues the proper direction of movement such that the general operation of the switch would be the same as that shown in the drawings.

It will also be evident that thebar 19 may be omitted and a second electrically controlled de- ,vice applied to the pan 2 so that both switch quite apparent that the contact 23 could be associated with trolley 31 by connecting the con ductor 32 to the trolley 23', likewise the contact 34 might be associated with the trolley wire 31 providing the conductor 37 is connected to the trolley wire 31 or 31'. If only one trolley is used, namely 2828-28" then the'switch associated with trolley 31 will be eliminated and the conductor 32 connected to ground as shown by dotted lines.

There is always more or less current being used on a vehicle for lights, heaters, etc., which may 4 as for instance that required for the operation of 45 the motors.

It is apparent that by reversing the position of the coils 20 and 22 the switches may be made to operate by power on in the opposite direction, that is, guide the collector to the branch conduc- 15 tor and likewise the engagement of the controller with the contact 23 would set the switch tongues for stlaight-of-way operation in place of the branch operation shown.-

Since the coil 20 is connected directly across the positive and negative conductors we construct the coil 20 with a much higher resistance than that of coil 22, thus the circuit from contact 23 through coil 20 to trolley wire 31 is greater than that of the circuit from contact 34 through coil 22 to trolley wire 28.

From this description it will be quite evident that the system is quite flexible as to changes which may be made, but all of which will still fall within the scope of our invention, therefore We wish to be limited only by ourclaims.

We claim:--

1. In an electrically operated trolley guide for use with a pair of spaced trolley wires of opposite polarity and one wire grounded, in combination, a trolley switch having a pair of spaced switch pans connected by transversely disposed and spaced insulating means attached to the body of the pans adjacent their ends to hold the pans in fixed and insulated relation and having means on the pans to secure the trolley wires thereto also a; plurality of means on the switch for the attachment thereto of steady cables and each pan having a switching tongue pivoted thereto to guide the current collectors mounted on moving vehicles and insulated means associated with the tongues to operate them in unison to difierent positions, the switch also having electrically operated mechanism supported above and by the pans to actuate the tongues and having a pair of energizing coils of substantial difference in resistance acting upon a single plunger associated with the tongues and insulated operating means, each coil having one end permanently connected to one of the two trolley wires but not the same wire; a contactor having a surface alignment with that of the adjacent trolley wire and connected to the coil which has one end connected to the said adjacent trolley wire and insulated therefrom except through the said coil whereby the coil is energized either when the contactor alone or the contactor and the trolley wire of opposite polarity are simultaneously engaged by current collectors with power on the motors to move the tongues to a predetermined position but which coil is not energized sufliciently to operate the tongues when the contactor is engaged by the current collector with power off the motors, a second contactor connected to the other coil and insulated from the trolley wire except through the said coil connection whereby the coil is energized whenever the contactor is engaged by a collector on the moving vehicle either with or without power on to move the tongues to a predetermined position before the collector engages the first said contactor.

2. In an electrically operated trolley switch for use with spaced trolley wires of opposite polarity, in combination, a trolley switch having a pair of spaced trolley pans and spaced means for holding the pans in a fixed spaced and insulated relation, means on the switch to secure the trolley wires thereto to yieldably support the switch, a movable tongue pivotally mounted on each pan to guide the current collector on the trolley of a moving vehicle, means to connect the tongues in insulated relation and operate them simultaneously, electrically operated mechanism supported by the pans and having a pair of operating coils with a substantial difference in resistance to operate the mechanism to different positions when the coils are energized, the mechanism being associated with the tongues and their connecting means to actuate the tongues to their different positions; a contactor having a contact bar and means to attach the bar in aligned and fixed and spaced relation to one of the trolley wires, the said a aching means secured to the ends of the trolley wire which are adjacent the ends of the contact bar, the end of one coil connected to the contact bar and the other end connected to the said trolley wire whereby the coil is energized either when the contactor alone or the contactor and the trolley wire of opposite polarity are simultaneously engaged by current collectors with power on the vehicle to move the tongues to a predetermined position, a, second contactor having a bar connected to the other coil and insulated from the trolley wire except through the said coil which is connected to the other trolley wire whereby the coil is energized whenever the contactor is engaged by a collector on the moving vehicle either with or without power on the vehicle to move the tongues to a predetermined position prior to the collector engaging the first said contactor and insulating means to hold the last said contact bar in fixed relation to the trolley wire.

JED F. WOOLLEY, JR. LAWRENCE J. LONG. 

